More details on African Lion, the US-Morocco sponsored military exercise in Africa:

US and Moroccan soldiers have started the first phase of African Lion 2015, an annual joint military exercise, in Agadir, Morocco.

Participants from the US, Morocco, Germany, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal and the UK completed an intelligence-capacity building workshop and are now set to create a combined joint task force (CJTF) to prepare for a simulated international crisis.

The capacity building workshop, task force and simulated crisis aim to strengthen cooperation and operational proficiency among the participants, helping them prepare for potential crises in the region.

In addition, the workshop and CJTF are expected to prepare them for the main phase of the exercise, which is scheduled to take place in Morocco in May, and will feature 2,500 personnel from the first phase, as well as from the Netherlands and Belgium.

Specifically, the CJTF will take the soldiers through a scenario that focuses on humanitarian aid, disaster relief and rapid and stable deployment operations…[Full Story]